StarData

For general access to the Wolfram Knowledgebase, use entities of type Star instead of StarData.

StarData[entity,property]

gives the value of the specified property for the star entity.

StarData[{entity1,entity2,},property]

gives a list of property values for the specified star entities.

StarData[entity,property,annotation]

gives the specified annotation associated with the property.

Details

  • StarData[] gives a list of all star entities.
  • StarData["Properties"] gives a list of available properties.
  • The specified entity in StarData can be an Entity, EntityClass, entity canonical name, or list thereof.
  • The specified property can be an EntityProperty, EntityPropertyClass, property canonical name, or list of properties.
  • Properties that do not apply or are not known in a particular case are indicated by Missing[].
  • Properties include:
  • "AbsoluteMagnitude"absolute visual magnitude
    "AbsoluteMagnitudeBolometric"absolute bolometric magnitude
    "Age"age
    "AlphanumericName"alphanumeric name
    "AlternateNames"alternate names
    "Altitude"altitude
    "AltitudeTransit"next transit altitude
    "AngularDiameterFromEarth"angular diameter as seen from Earth
    "AngularRadiusFromEarth"angular radius as seen from Earth
    "Apoapsis"largest distance from orbit center
    "ApparentAltitude"apparent altitude
    "ApparentMagnitude"apparent magnitude
    "Azimuth"azimuth
    "AzimuthRise"azimuth at rise
    "AzimuthSet"azimuth at set
    "BayerName"Bayer name
    "BayerStandardName"Bayer standard name
    "BooleanRise"above the horizon
    "BVColorIndex"B-V color index
    "Classes"classes
    "Color"color
    "Component"component
    "Constellation"constellation
    "DailyTimeAboveHorizon"daily time above horizon
    "Declination"declination
    "Density"mean density
    "Diameter"average diameter
    "DistanceFromEarth"distance from Earth
    "DistanceFromSun"distance from Sun
    "DurchmusterungName"Durchmusterung name
    "DurchmusterungStandardName"Durchmusterung standard name
    "Eccentricity"orbital eccentricity
    "EffectiveTemperature"effective temperature
    "EquatorialDiameter"equatorial diameter
    "EquatorialRadius"equatorial radius
    "EscapeVelocity"escape velocity
    "FlamsteedName"Flamsteed name
    "FlamsteedStandardName"Flamsteed standard name
    "GalacticLatitude"galactic latitude
    "GalacticLongitude"galactic longitude
    "GeocentricEclipticLatitude"geocentric ecliptic latitude
    "GeocentricEclipticLongitude"geocentric ecliptic longitude
    "GlieseName"Gliese catalog designation
    "GlieseStandardName"Gliese catalog standard name designation
    "Glyph"astrological symbol
    "GravitationalConstantMassProduct"standard gravitational parameter
    "Gravity"gravity
    "GreenwichHourAngle"Greenwich hour angle
    "HDName"HD catalog name
    "HDNumber"HD catalog number
    "HeliocentricEclipticLatitude"heliocentric ecliptic latitude
    "HeliocentricEclipticLongitude"heliocentric ecliptic longitude
    "HelioCoordinates"heliocentric XYZ coordinates
    "HipparcosName"Hipparcos name
    "HipparcosNumber"Hipparcos number
    "HRName"HR catalog name
    "HRNumber"HR catalog number
    "ICNumber"IC number
    "LifetimeEntropy"entropy at the end of main sequence lifetime
    "LocalHourAngle"local hour angle
    "Luminosity"luminosity
    "LuminosityMassRateEquivalent"luminosity mass rate equivalent
    "MainSequenceLifetime"main sequence lifetime
    "MajorAxis"major axis
    "Mass"mass
    "MaximalAltitudeTime"next maximum altitude time
    "MaximumAbsoluteMagnitude"maximum absolute magnitude
    "MaximumApparentMagnitude"maximum apparent magnitude
    "Metallicity"metallicity
    "MinimumAbsoluteMagnitude"minimum absolute magnitude
    "MinimumApparentMagnitude"minimum apparent magnitude
    "MomentOfInertia"rotational moment of inertia
    "MultipleSystemMember"member of a multiple star system
    "Name"name
    "NGCNumber"NGC number
    "Oblateness"oblateness
    "Obliquity"obliquity
    "OrbitalAngularMomentum"orbital angular momentum
    "OrbitCenter"orbit center
    "OrbitPeriod"orbital period
    "Parallax"parallax
    "Periapsis"nearest distance from orbit center
    "PolarDiameter"polar diameter
    "PolarRadius"polar radius
    "PositionAngle"position angle
    "ProperMotion"proper motion
    "ProperMotionDeclination"proper motion declination
    "ProperMotionRightAscension"proper motion right ascension
    "RadialVelocity"radial velocity
    "Radius"average radius
    "RightAscension"right ascension
    "RiseTime"next rise
    "RotationalAngularMomentum"rotational angular momentum
    "RotationPeriod"rotation period
    "SAOName"SAO catalog name
    "SAONumber"SAO catalog number
    "Satellites"known satellites
    "SemimajorAxis"semimajor axis
    "Separation"separation
    "SetTime"next set
    "Shape"shape
    "SiderealHourAngle"sidereal hour angle
    "SpectralClass"spectral class
    "SpectralClassList"spectral class list
    "StarDistanceTimeSeries"distance from Earth time series
    "StarEndState"stellar end state
    "StarType"star type
    "StationaryOrbitRadius"stationary orbit radius
    "StationaryOrbitSpeed"stationary orbit speed
    "SunElongation"elongation from the Sun
    "SurfaceArea"surface area
    "SystemMembers"system members
    "TransitTime"next transit time
    "TychoNumber"Tycho number
    "VariablePeriod"variability period
    "VariableStarName"variable star name
    "VariableStarType"variable star type
    "Volume"volume
    "WDSIdentifier"WDS identifier
  • Some properties are available for StarData as a whole and can be given using the form StarData[property]. Such properties include:
  • "Entities"all available entities
    "EntityCount"total number of available entities
    "Classes"all available entity classes
    "EntityClassCount"total number of available entity classes
    "SampleEntities"list of sample entities
    "SampleEntityClasses"list of sample entity classes
    "EntityCanonicalNames"list of all entity canonical names
    "PropertyCanonicalNames"list of all property canonical names
    "EntityClassCanonicalNames"list of all entity class canonical names
    "RandomEntities"pseudorandom sample entities
    {"RandomEntities",n}n pseudorandom entities
    "RandomEntityClasses"pseudorandom sample entity classes
    {"RandomEntityClasses",n}n pseudorandom entity classes
  • The following annotations can be used in the third argument of StarData[entity,property,annotation]:
  • "Qualifiers"the list of possible qualifiers for the property
    "QualifierValues"the list of possible values that can be given to each qualifier
    "DefaultQualifierValues"the list of default values for the property's qualifiers
    "Description"a brief textual description of the property
    "Definition"a detailed textual definition of the property
    "Source"source information for the property
    "Date"the date associated with the entity-property value (if any)
    "PhysicalQuantity"the physical quantity associated with the entity-property value
    "Unit"the unit associated with the entity-property value
    "EntityAssociation"an association of entities and entity-property values
    "PropertyAssociation"an association of properties and entity-property values
  • If a function is provided as an annotation, it will be used to aggregate the result data. Typical aggregation functions include:
  • Minthe minimum value
    Maxthe maximum value
    Meanthe mean value
    Commonestthe most frequently occurring value
    Medianthe median value
    Totalreturns the total
    Lengththe number of elements

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (7)

Use for discovery:

Find the effective temperature of a star:

Find the equatorial coordinates of a star:

Find the current sky position of a star from your location:

Get a list of classes of stars:

Find the spectral classes of barium stars:

The 10 nearest stars:

Distances:

Spectral class information:

Scope  (13)

The 15 brightest stars as seen from Earth:

The constellations for the 10 brightest stars:

Distance from Earth to Sirius:

Distance in meters:

Position of Sirius:

Date qualifiers can accept an explicit DateObject or queries that evaluate to a DateObject:

Date qualifiers can also be specified using Dated:

Location qualifiers can accept an explicit GeoPosition, location-based Entity objects, or queries that evaluate to one of these:

Spectral class for the Sun:

Spectral class information in list form:

Alternate names for Sirius:

Henry Draper Memorial catalog number for Sirius:

Give the individual stars that form Alpha Centauri:

Give the name of Tau Ceti, including Greek letters:

Without special characters:

Number of available supergiants:

Brightest 10 class O stars:

Brightest 10 WolfRayet stars:

Applications  (10)

Plot the right ascension and declination of the 100 brightest stars, with tooltips for their names:

The corresponding picture for the 100 nearest stars:

Rank plot of absolute magnitudes of the 100 nearest stars:

Rank plot of absolute magnitudes of the 100 brightest stars:

Distribution of basic spectral classes for the 100 brightest stars:

Distribution for the 100 nearest stars:

Rank plot of the distances to the 100 nearest stars:

Differences between successive distances:

Get the correct color and simulate lighting for a star:

The color of stars is an indication of their temperature:

The habitable zone of an exoplanet is an ambiguous concept with no agreed-upon definition. There are several ways to go about determining what you might interpret as the habitable zone. All methods have a relation to their host star.

One way of determining the habitable zone is described in Whitmire, D. and Reynolds, R. "Circumstellar Habitable Zones: Astronomical Considerations." In Doyle, L. (Ed.). Circumstellar Habitable Zones, Proceedings of the First International Conference. Travis House Publications, 1996: 117142. This method allows you to determine an inner and outer radius of the habitable zone around a star:

Neat Examples  (1)

Plot luminosity versus mass for nearby stars:

Wolfram Research (2014), StarData, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2014), StarData, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2014. "StarData." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2014). StarData. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2023_stardata, author="Wolfram Research", title="{StarData}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html}", note=[Accessed: 18-March-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2023_stardata, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={StarData}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StarData.html}, note=[Accessed: 18-March-2024 ]}